THE TRUE DUCKS. 
269 
f/uck-puck,” and Mr. Howard Saunders says that the note 
during the breeding-season is “ took-took.” The quack of the 
Duck is said by Mr. Seebohm to resemble that of the domestic 
species, tlie voice of the drake being a little the deeper, and 
sounding like guaak, while that of the duck might be repre- 
sented as “quauk.” 
Nest. — A neat but unskilfully made structure of grass, placed 
in a tuft of reedy grass or heath, without much lining beyond 
that of the bird's own down, and a little grass. 
Eggs. — Five or six in number, of a pale buffy-white or 
greenish-white. Mr. Robert Read found ten eggs in a nest 
in Scotland. Axis, 2-05-2-4; diam., I'S. Down very dark, 
spotted with white. The colour is dark brown, with whitish 
tips, scarcely visible, and with a white star-like spot in the 
centre of the plume. 
THE TRUE DUCKS. GENUS ANAS. 
Anas, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 194 (1766). 
Type, A. boscas (L.). 
The common Duck, of which the Mallard is the type, is 
distinguished from the other Ducks rather by negative than 
positive differences, as one gathers from Count Salvadori’s 
characters of the genus Anas. It has no chestnut on the inner 
secondaries like the Sheld-Ducks, but possesses a generally 
mottled plumage, without any large uniform patches, as in the 
foregoing birds. Nor is the bill spalulate as in the Shovelers, 
but is rather broad, and is of about the length of the head. 
From the Shovelers and some of the Teal it differs also in 
having the wing-coverts dull grey, and not blue. 
I. THE WILD DUCK, OR MALLARD. AN.AS BOSCAS. 
Anas boschas, Linn. S. N. i. p. 205 (1766) ; Macg. Br. B. v. p. 
31 (1852); Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 469, pi. 422 (1873); 
Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part viii. (1888). 
Anas boscas, B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 125 (1883) ; Seebohm, Br. 
B. iii. p. 559 (1885) ; Saunders, ed. Yarr. Br. B. iv. p. 358 
(1885); Saunders, Man. Br. B. p. 411 (1889)7 Salvad. 
Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 189 (1S95). 
